VirtueVice
by ice illuser
Summary: Seven sins defined them, but the world has changed, and sometimes one has to change with it as well. It's a long journey at times, but eventually vices can transform into virtues.


Disclaimer: Since I can't write fight scenes for the life of me, I highly doubt that I own Avatar. I would have noticed by now wouldn't I?

A/N: So this is my first Avatar fic, and I mainly got the idea of the 7 sins because of my favorite three characters: Toph, Azula, and Mai. They're really like Pride, Wrath, and Sloth respectively (although Azula could really be both Pride and Wrath), so I just decided to expand the whole thing to all 7 of the deadly sins. This is my first Avatar fic, so let's try this.

--

_Envy_

Yue knew what she had been doing when she had given up her mortality to become the Moon, but that didn't mean that she didn't regret it occasionally. She didn't know what would have happened if it hadn't been necessary, but it looked like it could have been a nice life. Who knew, she could have even married Sokka in the end.

But that was gone now. Now she was just the moon, watching the world, unable to actually actively participate. (Manifesting was too draining on her.)

Was she jealous? Envious of the girl with the painted face that was wrapped around his arm? She'd like to say that she wasn't, that she wished the best for both of them, that she was happy as long as he was, and that was all partially true, but it was also true that she wished it could have been her wrapped around his arm.

It _should_ have been her wrapped around his arm like that.

She was supposed to be the heavenly moon, glowing silvery light in the deep night sky. She shouldn't feel the bitter green streaks of envy shoot through her soul.

But she had been human before she had ever been the moon, and sometimes it was hard just to forget that and move on.

Despite that she had a duty to fulfill. Her very human life had been a gift from the moon, and it was time to repay that now with the former moon dead. There had never been any question of that. She would shine peacefully and give balance to the world and allow her former love to prosper with his newfound lady.

That would be her act of grace to the world and to him in the end.

_Kindness_

--

_Greed_

Katara had never really been called greedy (especially when you compared her against her traveling companions who had been busy scamming people out of their money before she put a stop to it), but she knew the truth.

When she saw people with complete and happy families, normal families, she couldn't help but feel an overwhelming desire to just make it belong to her. It was a piece of the past that was now forever lost to her, after her mother had been killed. Perhaps that was why she held their makeshift group together through all the trials as the mother figure most of the time.

That was also why she had been so angry with her father for leaving to fight the Fire Nation. Without him, she and Sokka were even less of a family than before, and she was even farther from obtaining her dream of a complete family.

It was her own greed, not for money or power, but for a family that laughed and talked together. That wasn't so bad, was it?

Besides, she made up for her minor sin by taking care of her strange family that she had created. True, she yelled at all of them all the time, but she also comforted them and quieted their raging worries and doubts when they needed her.

And they would forgive her her need to keep them together because she gave all of them everything she had.

_Generosity_

--

_Gluttony _

Ursa had once been a glutton for life. When she had been young, despite being the descendent of the shamed Avatar, it had still been a nice life. She had had everything she could ask for, and so she smiled and laughed and enjoyed life to the fullest.

Then she had caught the eye of the second son of the Fire Lord and was elevated to palace life. She had loved Ozai, and when she had had a son and a daughter, she had felt that she would never stop drinking from the joyful nectar of life.

But somehow, somewhere it all changed.

It was gradual, but one day she was reveling happily in the peaceful days where she helped Zuko feed the small turtle-ducks in the palace pond, and then the next she was quietly kissing his forehead and saying farewell. (She could never let Azulon or Ozai kill her son. Never, never, no matter what the cost.)

From then on, life was much harder and harsher, and she had to make do with what few things she had managed to take with her from her old life. She settled down in a small village in the outskirts of the Fire Nation, and ran an apocathary to make money.

Many years went by, and although her new life had none of the luxuries of her past (especially her past as the Fire Lady in the palace), she found herself more content here than she had ever been in the long hallways of the foreboding palace.

She missed both of her children (even with all the rumors she had heard over the years, of Zuko growing into a sullen young man and Azula drawing increasingly closer to her snapping point), but life had been good to her.

Especially now that the Fire Nation was no longer at war, and Zuko had been crowned Fire Lord. Perhaps she would be able to see him again. Perhaps she would go to the prison and visit her poor Azula, and perhaps she would even go visit her now powerless husband Ozai.

But no matter what reunions might occur, she knew that she would never return to the grand life she had once lived in the palace. She would always return to her small village and peddle out her cures and medicines.

She had found peace in simplicity.

_Temperance_

--

_Lust_

Ty Lee knew how the boys watched her, and she wasn't above using that to her advantage every once in awhile. It was kind of funny anyway, the dopey, dazy way they stared at her before she hit the pressure points to make them all fall down before her feet.

And it was convenient at places like the beach too, where boys would all crowd around her, vying for her attention and all perfectly happy, honored even, to provide shade for her or get her an ice cream.

In a family full of girls who looked exactly like her, it was nice to be singled out in some way or another.

All in all, she didn't mind flaunting her body to get what she wanted. That's why she wore her midriff baring pink outfit all the time (and the fact that it happily reminded her of her times in the circus), even though it was a liability in the battlefield, and it was such a small thing in the end.

But now that she's with the Kyoshi warriors instead of accompanying Azula, it's different. The green costume was a robe that hung over and covered her bouncy frame completely, so she no longer had her old costume's shock value to give her the initial advantage in the fight, but in a way, maybe it was good too.

It was a new time, away from both her family, Azula, and even her beloved circus, and maybe it was time for a change in style as well.

Plus, maybe that Sokka guy would pay more attention to her now.

_Chastity_

--

_Sloth_

Mai had gone through most of life listlessly, simply adapting to however life buffeted her around. Zuko had been banished? Then she would try to put him out of mind for now (it had been a childish hope back then anyway). She suddenly had a little brother? Then she would watch over him when asked and try to make sure he didn't drool on her too much. Azula suddenly appears and tells her to join a task force to catch the Avatar and (as she later found out) Zuko? Well, she'd go along with it since at least it wouldn't be boring.

She was apathetic, and so some considered her to be sleeping through the flower of her youth (such as her mother who fretted about how to marry off such an uninteresting daughter whose hobby was to throw sharp needles at targets).

And in a way that was true, since the most lively thing she had done was fight and live by Azula's side for many years (though, if you thought about it, that counted more as living on the edge than anything else).

But situations shift, and she no longer let the days roll by without a glance.

It started when she ran after Zuko to the Boiling Rock which lead to her actually going against Azula's will for the first time she could remember (although days after that were spent in a clean but boring prison cell, watching Ty Lee show off her summersaults and tricks to the Kyoshi warriors) and now that she was to become the Fire Lady, she was suddenly very busy.

Strange, how she had gone from leaning over balconies in Omashu, longing for something, _anything _to take away the boredom, to suddenly becoming the wife of the leader of the Fire Nation that they both would have to somehow rebuild. God knows how they were going to manage that. (Or was it Avatar knows? Since the little bald monk seemed to be the center upon the rebirth of the entire Four Nations.)

But even if she hadn't really understood Zuko's need to change the ways of the Fire Nation (it had seemed more or less fine to her, but she supposed all things could be improved upon), she would be the one helping him along with it (and probably be the one forced to calm him out of his fire-spitting rages. And talk him out of impulsive plans thought out at 3 in the morning. And cheer him up when he sulked. …what _had _she getting herself into?)

She had always walked along edges (her knives and friendship, if it could really be called that, with Azula were prime examples) and now she would walk the one between the supporter role of the Fire Lady to her Lord and her self-trained role of a warrior that had her at target practice every morning.

She had come a long way from that quiet blushing girl submitting to the task of balancing an apple on her head for firebending target practice.

_Diligence_

--

_Pride_

Toph was the best earthbender in all of the Four Nations. That wasn't a boast that she just bandied around, it was a concrete fact up there with the facts that water was wet and that fire burns. After all, who else could bend metal, see with her feet, or detect all lies, and to top it all of, at her young age?

And nearly everyone acknowledged that (those that didn't were generally tossed high in the air with one stomp of her dainty little foot) except for her parents. To them, she was still the delicate little blind Bei Fong heiress who had to have others blow on her hot food for her lest it burn her mouth.

They still thought that, even after all she had accomplished.

She hated that. Every fiber of her being, everything that made her _Toph _despised the notion that she was weak. Why else would she be so pleased that a hulking macho man had portrayed her in that play? (And no matter how upset Twinkletoes had been about it, that girl playing him had been _hilarious. _Even if the constant "yip-yip!" got old.)

She wasn't weak. She was still Earth Rumble's undefeated Blind Bandit, she had stormed the Earth King's palace (with some help she will admit, but it was mostly her), and she had metalbended the Fire Nation air ships into a tangle during Sozin's Comet.

It was true though that away from earth she did become rather helpless. She still couldn't see clearly in the desert, she couldn't see at all on ice, and she couldn't swim (and considering what happened last time, she vowed to never go to the ocean if she could help it).

And while she _was_ awesome, there were some people she had learned over their journey that could do some things much better than she ever could. Sugar Queen could comfort people, Snoozles could joke around and think up plans, Sparky could think up even more plans (and brood to the point of becoming a black hole of angst, but that was a different story), and Twinkletoes was the _Avatar_ (although she was still a bit smug that he still couldn't earthbend much less metalbend as well as she could).

She was _the _best earthbender there was, but there were plenty of other people who were better than her at other maybe more important things as well. (Although, bending was really important, and she was the best.)

_Humility_

--

_Wrath_

Azula had a frightening amount of control that had made her the goddess of lightning at a tender, young age, but she also had, just simmering under her scarlet smirk, a terrifying amount of rage that turned her flames a brilliant blue.

She wasn't like her brother, blowing up over annoyances and breathing fire when especially pissed off. That was actually probably a lot healthier that the poisonous wrath she stored in her body, letting it ferment for explosion.

Firebending was anger and rage, and she had enough of that to fuel three prodigies to perfection.

That had never been enough for her dear mother though, oh no. She had always felt her mother's eyes pinned on her, while the flames danced from her fingers, as though watching a monster. And then she had left, Zuko her mother's favorite was banished, and she was the only one left for her father to focus his expectations on.

And oh, how she had strived to reach them.

Perfection wasn't simple to achieve, much less to be, even for a prodigy, but she had managed. She had been ruthless in her pursuit (what else mattered?) and at one point she had had everything in control. Mai and Ty Lee had followed her around obediently, the Avatar was dead, and her father was pleased with her.

It didn't really matter if she had no idea how to deal with other people on a casual basis as the disastrous trip to the beach had proved. She was a princess, a general, a goddess when it came to firebending, and her wrath was terrible to behold. Everyone followed her orders to please her because they were afraid, and that was fine.

And then, suddenly, it all fell apart.

Mai and Ty Lee had betrayed her, her father wouldn't permit her to accompany him on his razing of the Four Nations during Sozin's Comet, and she felt her mother haunting her every steps (was she even dead?). Being crowned Fire Lord, her dream for so many years, left a bitter taste in her mouth, and it was almost a relief to fight Zuko for the throne.

It had felt exhilarating to let go of that iron control that had ruled her and let the sheets of flames flow out of her fingers. It felt good to let loose all that rage, all her wrath, all her disappointments against her brother who was a failure and yet had still somehow found a place for himself. Her brother who had never managed to even compete with her even when they were young and he was the older one. Her brother who had never been considered a _monster_ by their mother despite his own tantrums.

But they defeated her in the end, and she was reduced to spitting out flames in fury, screaming, and rolling around on the ground like a child in a tantrum.

And now she was in prison.

Her. Princess of the Fire Nation. The Conqueror of Ba Sing Se. The Firebending prodigy. Locked up like any common criminal in a padded cell.

How she had raged for days and days, scorching the cell, making the stones red hot and the bars of the doors melt slightly. But even that had been no use. They had simply replaced the padding and bars, and left her there.

Eventually she got tired, and in her muddled and not quite connected mind, she wondered what was going on outside. She heard (where she wasn't sure anymore. Days tended to blend together and by now she was beginning to think that her mind was slipping away) that Zuko had become the Fire Lord, Mai his Lady, and that they were working with the Avatar to rebuild the Four Nations.

She was too tired by now to scream, and all the rage and wrath seems to have left her, and she's not sure what she's left with anymore.

Zuko comes by to visit sometimes. He shifts around awkwardly, and she turns her face to the wall. He stumbles over whatever he intended to say, and she ignores him. He leaves, and she stares at the padded wall of her cell critically.

She wonders if she is fading away into nothing, since the perfection, the control, the wrath that burned through her, all those things that had once defined her have been spent or taken away. They say she is mad, and she starts to wonder if Zuko really does visit, or if it's just another hallucination like the ones of her mother.

There isn't much she can do to pass the monotonous days. Sometimes she wonders if she will ever be free, but she always quickly shoves that idea somewhere far, far away and stamps on it a few times for good measure. It's no use thinking about that.

She's beginning to wonder if the blue skies she remembers are really just a figment of her tortured mind, and if the world really does just consist of stone walls and a metal gate clanging open and shut every day when her brother finally manages to say something coherent to her.

"Mother says she's coming here soon," he begins slowly, standing in front of the bars of her cell, "She said that she wanted to see you."

She ignores him, as always. He probably isn't even there anyway.

"They say you're starting to not eat," he pauses and shuffles around awkwardly, and she knows, _she knows _that he feels guilty. And she wants him to shut up because the last thing she can stand is her hallucinations dithering away.

"They say that they haven't heard you speak or even scream in at least three months," he finally stumbles out, "If—"

"Shut _up _Zuzu," her voice rasps out, surprising even herself, "No one here wants to hear you whine."

She doesn't turn around, but she can hear his sigh of relief. She doesn't know how you could both love and hate a person so much, but that was always the way Zuzu seemed to her. She loved him because he was blood no matter how stupid he was, and she hated him (despised him) for all of his weaknesses. She hates him because he's found a place for himself and she loves him because he's suddenly grown more powerful (if not more confident). She loves him because he's gone through everything she has, and she hates him because he's free (both in mind and body) and she's _not. _

"She really does want to see you Azula," Zuko finally says. "She's already seen father."

"Go away Zuzu," she says tiredly (the days are long and have dragged by so much that all her defiance has been wasted away), "You got what you wanted, didn't you? You're Fire Lord now, and I'm here locked up."

"Is that what you really think?" Zuko asked her softly.

"Of course it is or else I wouldn't be saying it," she snapped, "Hallucinations of mine shouldn't question me so much."

"Hallu—?" Zuko paused, "I'm not a hallucination."

"That's what they all say," she mutters, examining her hand. Why does it matter if she knows what's real or not anymore? She's trapped in this cell for all eternity unless the Avatar or her brother goes as insane as she is.

She hears him take a step back, "I should get a doctor in here," he says hurriedly, "Maybe we should move you—"

She begins to laugh, and in some still sane part of her mind she's mildly horrified, but she just can't _stop. _He was still the same. This way of thinking, this compassion, this impulsiveness were all qualities that she had easily manipulated before to her advantage. He would never change, and she…she no longer knew who she was anymore.

She heard her cell door being opened, there was a light prick of pain to her arm, and the next thing she knew she was opening her eyes to see her mother. She sighed to herself. This again. How many times would she have to go through this?

She turned around to face the wall, and noted idly that she was in some clean white room. So she wasn't in the prison anymore. Zuzu was so stupid; she could escape so easily if she wanted to right now. Her mother, even if she wasn't a hallucination, while good with poisons couldn't firebend to light a candle.

"The doctors say you've been mad for awhile Azula," her mother says softly behind her, "Zuko feels that you would have a better environment here, for awhile."

She smirks to herself, "Haven't you always known I was mad, _mother?" _she drawls, putting all the malice that she could still muster into the last two syllables, "You always thought I was a monster after all. Never like precious little _Zuzu._"

Her mother reaches out to smooth her limp black hair away from her forehead, but she jerks away from the outstretched hand. Her mother lets the hand fall and sighs, "I'm sorry Azula. Leaving you…I should have taken both of you children with me rather than leave you to the mercy to your father."

She feels the maniacal laughter building up again, but pushes it down with what sheer willpower she has left. She doesn't want her to see what she's been reduced to.

"You act as if this could have been prevented," she says with an almost amused tone.

"Yes," her mother agrees, "I believe it could have been."

Her mouth twists into a sneer, "No you don't," she spits out, "You've always known that this is how I would end up one day. Don't lie to me."

Her mother sighs, "I've always seen the possibility," she admits quietly, "What with your father's pride and your own determination. But if I had taken you away—"

"Stop it," she interrupts her, feeling the first simmerings of rage rise up in her stomach in how long she doesn't remember, "Whatever _you_ think may have been, it's too late now. I'm here, I'm insane, and _Zuzu_'s on the throne the way you always wanted him to be. Now go back to wherever you were hiding, if you're really here at all."

Her mother sighed again, "Do you know how long you've been in prison, Azula?" she asks softly.

She snorts, "The days have a tendency to blend together," she replies blandly, lifting up a limp strand of black hair to examine it. It seemed that her hacked off tresses had grown back to her former length.

"It's been nearly a year," her mother continued, "Three months of which no one heard a sound of you. Zuko is considering letting your father come back with me to the village. Would you like to accompany us?"

This time she couldn't hold it back, and she began to laugh and laugh and laugh. Stupid, _stupid _Zuzu. Did he think that just because she was mad she was powerless now? She wasn't like her father with all of her previous powers locked away; even if she had lost her iron control, that didn't mean she couldn't produce lightning if she put her mind to it. She could still feel that rage slithering under the surface of her skin. And he still wanted to set her free on some helpless little village? It was _so _naïve of him; surely Mai wasn't going along with this as well?

"Azula!" her mother yelled and shook her, but she _just can't stop laughing_. It was just _so _typical of him. What, did he think just because he had done a 180 degree turnabout that she would as well? He should have known better than that; she wondered sometimes if they actually had the same blood running through their veins.

She feels a prick at her arm, and she once again falls into blissful oblivion.

When she wakes up, this time it's a nervous Zuko sitting at the edge of her bed, still in the same sterile white room. She notices with a sense of quiet detachment that her hands have still not been restrained.

"The doctor says that country air would do you some good," Zuko's words rush out, tripping over themselves in an urgent desire to be said.

She glares at him. How dare he, _how dare he_ think her powerless now? The wrath in her finally stirs to life, her fingers easily press together in the familiar form, and ice blue lightning crackles out and streams towards him. He looks surprised but manages to at the last second stand in that hated stance and redirects her rage out the open window. She wants to scream and scream and scream until her throat is bloody and torn but knows that wouldn't help her at all. She contents herself with turning and facing the wall again. She feels drained; her wrath seems to be no longer serving her correctly.

Zuko coughs, "Mother's taking father back to the village she's living in," he mutters awkwardly, staring out the window at the scorched grass, "Aang says he could keep an eye on you if you go there as well."

"You think the Avatar popping by every once in awhile is going to keep everyone safe?" she asks, her tone amused, "Or will he be enjoying _mother's_ hospitality as well? I thought he was supposed to be rebuilding the Air Nation."

"He said it's going well enough," Zuko replied, "I…if you stay in prison any longer, the doctor says you'll…you'll be lost. You need to get out, for some time at least."

"And then you expect me to go obediently back into prison?" she scoffs, "The Avatar cannot keep watch on me forever."

"The day may come when you no longer want to wreak destruction," Zuko says, sounding as if he's reciting it after having it hammered into his head, "Toph says that she thinks she can tell when you're lying now. If that day comes, you can stay there."

"And if it never comes?" she asks, genuinely curious.

Zuko shifts awkwardly in his seat, "Mai doesn't agree with me, but I think it will," he mumbles, "We share the same blood after all. Besides a year ago you would have already escaped by now."

She considers this. That much is true, but a year ago she had so much more rage and purpose driving her. Today, it took all of what she had to produce one lightning strike. Would she try to escape? Would she run? If she ran, where would she go? There was no place in all of the Four Nations that would accept the mad former princess of the Fire Nation, not after all she had done. And even if she had once taken over the "unconquerable" city of Ba Sing Se with just two followers, she wasn't that same girl anymore.

There had been a time where her mind would have already calculated nine ways to return to her former position using her dearbrother's naivety, but she was just _so tired _now of it all. All the schemes, all the power, all the fear, where had that really gotten her in the end? If her rage that had sustained her for years had faded away, was there anything left, or was she just an empty shell now?

She looked up at Zuko's worried face and nodded slowly, "I'll go."

Perhaps out of the confines of her cell that were beginning to seem the world and her mind to her by now, she could find that answer. This was a different land than the one that she had inhabited for so long. She could wait to find her place in this new world order.

_Patience_

--

A/N: ….yeah, the Azula part is much longer than all of the other parts put together. I didn't intent for that to happen, but Azula's situation wasn't as cut and dried as the others' were to begin with. Please review! Sorry if I made anyone OOC. Katara was really hard to write for some reason, and I still don't like how her part turned out. You could argue about my interpretation of Azula, but I really didn't think that it was that simple that she would just be insane forever and forever. This is perhaps a more optimistic version of how it could go with her.


End file.
